Crown of Lightning
by emmacortana
Summary: Piper McLean is Master Thief of California and a member of a criminal organisation. But when the Criminals's Guild is located, a plan is devised to destroy them from the inside out by using teen prodigy Jason. When Jason is recruited into the guild, he has to glean information that will ultimately destroy them. Then he starts falling for the thief that calls herself "The Crown."
1. Chapter 1

**AN/ Hey hey! It's Emm! So I've had this in my iPad notes for quite some time-just something I was interested myself in reading, although I couldn't find another fanfiction like this online-and I just decided to publish it. I know I haven't published in a while, but the thing is I have so many chapters already written down. So I'm gonna try to upload as much of them as I can, and oh! I'm writing SOO many of my own novels! So please check them out on my fictionpress (Emmaleebear1), even though I think I only have one really bad chapter from like last year of one not-so-good plotline, But I promise I have so many ideas that I'm working on right now. So, ONWARDS WITH THE STORY!**

 _ **Piper's POV**_

The alarms started blaring, making me groan. I mean, sure I like a challenge, sometimes. In fact, I live for challenges-why else would I be a jewel thief? But today of all days? I had a date later on to get ready for!

My body quivered with eager anticipation, though-disagreeing with my (very annoyed) brain completely. It awaited danger, getting ready for the adrenaline rush that always makes theft worth it.

The guards were catching up to me. Really, though, they were quite slow. It's a wonder how they all got appointed for the job.

I slowed down my pace, plastering on a mischievous little smirk that I perfected years ago with the help of my best friend, Leo. It always did the trick; the guards backed up a step, then hesitantly made their way to me again. The smirk said, "just try," and "don't even think about it!" But most importantly, it screamed that I knew a secret that they didn't-one that could potentially help me against them.

Two of the guards took out their tasers. Idiots, I thought. Their stances were horrible. I bet I could take them out without even trying. The rest just watched to see how this would play out, no doubt wanting to save their cowardly asses. One guard was talking fast into his walkie-talkie, giving orders to the security about where we were, which exits to block off, blah blah blah. He talked in code, with nonsense words, syllables and all.

Little did they know, that their code speech was SO EASY to steal and pick up. So apparently exits 1-8 and 13 were out. Bummer.

I supposed the other exits would be on the other side of a sea of blue uniforms and cheap flashlights. But what other choice did I have? If I wanted to get out of here alive and un-captured (preferably with the big fat diamond in my hand) I would have to find a way past them. Then I could contact the Freaks and we could get the hell out of here.

I disarmed the tasers off the men easily, using the weapons myself to knock them out. One in each hand, I took out half the team without even breaking a sweat. I suppose training really does pay off.

I had a bit of trouble with the rest. I assumed they knew and fought with each other very well, because they moved like a team. They weren't perfect, like us, but they were synchronized enough that it did take more out of me. But still, I was surrounded by unconscious bodies by the count of five minutes.

I stopped to think. Which direction should I go? The twins should be waiting outside, but we had originally decided on exit 2. Which exit would they choose as a back up? And then the answer hit me, and I felt so silly for even thinking the question. Of course the self absorbed twins would choose the house number for their family-cabin eleven.

I quickly dashed to the left, my feet knowing how to take me to 11. I only ran into three guards, all of whom were easy.

When I reached the exit, I stopped. I took my knife, Katoptris (obviously stolen before from a museum. I carry it all the time-you never know when a knife might come in handy) and dragged it against the wall. The slashes made letters, formed into words. "WE HAVE COME," it read, with a crudely drawn crown beside it. The crown was my symbol, the one that separated me from the other Freaks; the words were always left in a theft scene. It recognized the crime as one of ours. Like dogs peeing on the ground, I supposed. We were marking our territory with our destructive piss.

Percy, the heir to the Freaks, drew a trident with his blade, Riptide. His girlfriend Annabeth left a token-a small (fake) silver coin with an owl and the letter "A" on it. Thalia made a zigzag pattern that made a lightning bolt, Leo a charred something (he basically just lit something on fire, which was his favourite passtime) and added a scrap piece of metal sometimes, the Stoll twins (ok, so maybe they aren't actually twins. But they sure as hell look and act like them) left a different fake ID every time, and that was that. We all had a symbol, and mine just so happens to be the crown.

On group efforts, such as the thievery Annabeth, Thalia and I did last month together, we left a silver coin, but on one side there was a lightning strike, and on the other, a tiara. We tend to do these things a lot, for instance, Percy and I wrote "Poseidon, king of seas" one time, to symbolize royalty (me) and the sea (Percy).

A noise made me turn, and I saw thirty men charging towards me. I laughed, amused that they thought they could take me. And then just slipped out the door. Really, there's no need for windows if you've already been caught.

I saw the van, and raced towards it. I gave the tap code (just my name. No one knew it anyway: they just saw me as "The Crown.") The door opened up, revealing Travis.

"Get the diamond?" He asked. He wriggled his eyebrows and sized me up, looking for places I might hide it.

I opened the hidden pocket of my cloak, and the light glinted off the gemstone. Travis smiled wickedly, as his brother Connor whooped. He had already started driving, heading for the Guild. I leaned back and closed my eyes, finally letting myself relax. The stone was stolen and I had claimed it-no claim no gain, that was our rule. I made it, and now all of us at the Guild had at least a couple days of no missions to look forward to.

The diamond would provide for our training and staple necessities-swords and shields included. We'd even have enough left to invite a few more non-accomplished criminals into the Guild. It's a good job, and when you're desperate enough for food, what lengths wouldn't you go to?

As the van reached their camp out, I got more and more excited. I had a claimed a pretty large steal on a solo mission! So when the car doors finally opened, I held my chin up high and went to greet my family.


	2. Chapter 2

**Okay, so I had this in my thing since last May, and only got around now to posting it.**

 **Sorry.**

 **Please forgive me with this chapter.**

 **Also, I'm thinking of starting a new fanfic. So far, the only title I can think of is Roommates. It sucks, I know. It's in PJO, and it's an AU. The Seven are roommates (big surprise) but they're all criminals, e.g. Percy is an Assassin, Annabeth is a hacker, credit card scammer and illegal investigator, Jason fights in underground arenas, etc... but the catch is-none of them know about each other. So the story would be kinda funny, watching them go out of their way to make up an excuse to go out at 3 am in the morning (with something questionable in their pockets) and stuff like that, and getting paranoid about it. Also, like most my fics, there will be a villain and an adventure. So what do you think? Tell me in the review section please!**

I walked to the entrance of the Guild, where Leo waited for me. He grinned impishly, and held out his hand expectantly.

I smiled, and passed him the diamond, the size of half my fist. His mouth opened like an "O" and I laughed.

"Nice, Mclean. But did you claim it?" He asked.

"Of course, I did." One time I pulled an awesome theft, but forgot to claim it. And then, although it was obvious that I was the one who did it, it was up for grabs and ended up getting nabbed by Clarisse. I wasn't going to make that mistake again.

Leo and I started walking to the hearth. The hearth was the centre of the camp, and there should be a lot of people there. I'd give the gemstone to Percy, who'd get in contact with Rachel and sell it to her. Since Rachel was a rich family, it didn't look suspicious when she sold off our goods. After all, her mother did have a lot of jewelry.

As soon as we saw the charred wood, a person shouted my name. I turned around, seeing Annabeth jogging towards me, and smiling wickedly when she saw my prize. Percy was following right behind her, contently watching his girlfriend. Annabeth hugged me, and while doing so snatching the diamond from my hand and holding it between her thumb and second finger.

Percy looked at her as if she was the most adorable thing in the world. He seemed proud of her backstabbing skills.

Percy took the stone from Annabeth, which she gave over willingly without much complaint. He peered at it closely, then pocketed it. "Nice, Pipes. Is it claimed?"

"Yup," I said, popping the p.

"It'll fetch a high price with Rachel. Did anyone see you?"

"Nah, I'm way too good."

Annabeth sighed at my horrible grammar. "Much too good, Piper. Much too good."

Leo and I rolled our eyes, as Annabeth walked away. "Your next mission is Friday," she called over her shoulder. "The Bank Royaume, 150,000. Thalia's pairing with you," she said, while Percy chased after her. It was funny that way, how Percy could be so in command and such a leader but he followed Annabeth around like a lost puppy. I had no doubt that if she told him to go jump off a bridge, he wouldn't hesitate.

The Stolls seemed to have disappeared for now. Probably forging more IDs for everyone (they had a mountain of requests. After all, how were you to get into a club to kill someone if you didn't have an ID?) but mostly for themselves. They loved dropping an ID and have the police and detectives drive themselves crazy trying to figure out who this person is or their connection to the crimes.

The only thing they loved more was making IDs of someone already existing and having them taken into custody.

It was actually pretty smart, what they did. The IDs were flawless. The pictures were spot on. It drew the police off our tracks, most importantly. And since they had the same symbol, people actually thought they were the same person. If we were ever captured, one of them could escape. Of course, they probably wouldn't. They wouldn't leave their brother behind.

"So," Leo said suddenly, making me jump. "You have any other felonies to commit or do you wanna grab some dinner?"

I smirked, "Like what? It's 2:00 am. Is anywhere open right now? And you know kt has to be vegetarian."

Leo sighed melodramatically. "Well, there is the ever-so-loved McDonald's. You can get your sad fries and milkshake, while I get a delicious Big Mac with an extra patty," he said, laughing as I wrinkled my nose.

I shrugged, "Sure, why not? I could stand to eat."

...

It turned out that the _ever-so-loved_ McDonald's was six miles away, and with the speed that Leo was going, my stomach would never forgive me for caving into an eat-out instead of a celebratory leftover pizza. Twenty minutes later, and we just pulled into the driveway of a big, fat, neon M.

it was unsurprising that The restaurant was almost completely empty in this ungodly hour, and the one cashier in front was chasing coffee like there was no tomorrow. Leo walked up to the cashier confidently, despie the half-assed death glare the guy gave him for bothering him almost at three in the morning.

"I'll have a Big Mac, extra patty, and she'll have fries and a milkshake," he said with an overexaggerated sigh, jerking his head towards me.

"Don't forget the 'sad, sad,'" I muttered, and my best friend grinned.

"$8.35," the cashier said. Leo handed him a ten dollar bill and told him to keep the change. The cashier thanked him unenthusiastically.

I grabbed our food and walked over to a table by the window, Leo following in my pursuit. Even before I sat down, I reached in the bag and got a _sad, sad_ fry, popping it into my mouth and moaning with the delicious-iness of it all. The last time I had eaten was earlier that morning, and even then it was just a parfait.

Leo, the dirty guy that he is, laughed and said "Giving Oral to your food? It wouldn't seem like it as you're the one having a mouthgasm, but hey, whatever gets you off."

I punched his gut.

He wheezed for a while, but grinned weakly. "Come on, McLean, that the best you can do?"

I punched him again, this time on the cheek. He clutched it, yowling like a cat in pain, but managed to grin and said, "That's better."

I rolled my eyes and ignored him. Through all the violent commotion, we didn't notice a man come in the restaurant and observe our childish banter. No, not a man, but a boy. A guy who seemed our age, maybe a bit older? Blond hair, shocking blue eyes, great body. I locked eyes with him, before Leo smirked at me.

"Geez, Pipes. You stood up a guy just tonight, and now you're already on to a new victim."

I shrugged wickedly. "It's not my fault the hot ones always seem to find me."

Chuckling, Leo went to back to destroying his disgusting hamburger. Meanwhile, Blondie continued to observe us.

"I'm sorry, can I help you?" I asked, my voice a bit sharp with sarcasm.

Blondie jumped, as if waking up from a daze. "No, sorry. It's just, you seem kinda familiar. Do I know you by any chance?"

I squinted at him. I figured if I ever met him, I'd know. Maybe he saw my dad and saw a resemblance?

Or maybe he recognized my eyes...

"Umm, nope. Ok, Lee, I think it's time to go," I turned to Blondie, "I'd say see you later but I think that's doubtful. Bye!" I blew airkisses at him, grabbed Leo's arm and dragged him back to our car, him protesting every step of the way, mourning his unfinished burger.

"What'd you do that for?" he grumbled, reversing the car out of the driveway.

"In case you didn't notice while giving Oral to _your_ beef, he recognized me. And I'm quite sure I've never met him before in my life. Which either means I avoided one of my father's crazy fans, he's another one of our unrelated relatives-I mean I already have my hands full with the freaks and especially you, or he recognized us through the videos. And I don't feel like taking any chances today. So can we please just go?" I hissed.

Leo huffed, "Fineeee, but tomorrow we're going to your house for dinner tomorrow."

I sighed. My house usually meant fancy meals from our chef, with my father either coming late or leaving early, and a giant table with only two chairs filled. But the chef seemed to love Leo, and Leo had a thing for the food there. "Fine. Ow let's go home."

We drove off into the night.


End file.
